A libertarian leaning, common preference seeking, pro-science, pro-critical rationalism, humanist blog, which is mainly, but by no means exclusively, about home educating in the UK.

Monday, April 11, 2005

Panorama on Bullying

The best that can be said about the situation in schools as portrayed in this programme is that at least severe bullying is at last being taken seriously to some extent, and given that this is so desperately overdue, it is hard not to be grateful for even this tiny titbit, but generally speaking this was probably the only consolation in this painfully sad programme.

The muddle-headedness of the thinking that emanates from all those who cannot think outside the box of 'school is good' shines forth from programmes such as these. The protagonists, headmasters, LEA representatives, schools ministers, even parents simply cannot imagine a better idea than school and it clouds their ability to think at all clearly.

How can the people in such a system, which in illegally promoting the element of compulsory school attendance, and which condones the usual relationship between teacher and pupil, which in any other situation would be unquestionably be categorised as a bullying one, how can the people in such a system honestly and with a clear conscience deal with the issue of bullying, since they themselves frequently on a minute by minute basis, perpetuate the crime themselves?

One of the ways in which many schools set out to deal with the problem of bullying is to use what is known as the 'No Blame Approach'. The irrationality and moral relativism of the No Blame Approach to bullying just makes you want to scream. Such poor thinkers should really not be allowed to be responsible for our children. The' No Blame Approach' is laughable for several reasons. Firstly, the relativism implied by the title is one of the most corrupting influences in Britain today. Relativism in all its forms is demonstrably profoundly illogical, and redundant as an philosophy and an ethic. We cannot allow this type of thinking to be promoted in places of learning. Secondly, in practice it was not at all a 'no blame' approach, insofar as it involved putting the bullies into a group setting with children other than the victims, where the bullies were then in theory, helped to understand the consequences of their actions. Helping someone develop better theories implicitly suggests that they were previously holding bad ones, and therefore that they were to blame for their actions. DUH.

How are we expected to raise our children to think rationally when such blatant contradictions surround them all the time? How are we expected to raise our children to be responsible autonomous reasonable citizens when they are given no experience of exercising responsible choices? The only way in which bullying is going to let up is to remove the element of compulsion over the issue of going to school. It would be nice if to that end, more genuine support for home education could be demonstrated by government, if in practice this just means leaving us alone.